History of the Department of Construction Management

The Department of Construction Management is a graduating department of SPbGASU.

The history of the department began in 1976 after the division of the Department of Construction Operations into the Department of Construction Production Technology and the Department of Organization, Planning and Management of Construction (OPUS).

The founder and first Head of the Department of Construction Operations was Doctor of Engineering Sciences, Professor V. V. Arnold, who headed the department until 1943. It was then headed by outstanding scientists and educators—Doctors of Engineering Sciences, Professors V. G. Gervits (from 1943 to 1946) and D. D. Bizyukin (from 1946 to 1951). All of them made significant contributions to the development of construction science and to the improvement of higher construction education in our country.

In 1931, V. G. Gervits prepared a textbook, "Organization of Construction Work," which was published in 1945 as a textbook for construction universities. In 1951, under the editorship of D. D. Bizyukin, Doctor of Engineering Sciences, Professor, and Honored Scientist and Engineer of the RSFSR, a team of authors prepared a textbook for engineering and construction institutes, "Technology of Construction Production," which presented in detail all aspects of construction technology, mechanization, and organization.

From 1951 to March 1976, the Department of Construction Operations was headed by Nikolai Aleksandrovich Smirnov, who had previously dedicated over 35 years to construction. Under his leadership, major industrial and civil projects were built, including new buildings for the Kirov and Izhorsky factories, the Pyatiletka artificial silk factory, and the Stankolit plant; residential developments in Avtovo, on the right bank of the Neva, in Shchemilovka, and other areas of the city.

The development of production and scientific activities, the processes of differentiation and specialization of once complex disciplines led in 1976 to the division of the Department of Construction Operations into the Department of Construction Production Technology and the Department of Organization, Planning and Management of Construction (OPUS).

The newly created Department of OPUS was headed by Professor M. A. Weber for the first ten months. The department included Associate Professors Z. D. Aleksandrova, S. S. Bozykin, V. I. Kirichenko, Yu. P. Kuchanov, Yu. I. Pastukhov, L. D. Kolesnikova, and L. D. Kopanskaya; Assistant Professors A. M. Balchis, Yu. N. Gorodeikin, G. V. Kopansky, and G. V. Krylov; and Engineer E. A. Zhukovskaya. The main academic disciplines were "Organization, Planning, and Management of Construction" and "Technology, Organization, Planning, and Management of Repair and Construction Work."

From March 1977 to 1998, the department was headed by Doctor of Engineering Sciences, Professor V. A. Afanasyev, who had previously headed a related department at the A. F. Mozhaisky Military Engineering Institute. The department's staff developed a research area related to the flow organization of work. In connection with the inclusion of the course "Automation of Construction" in the department's academic disciplines, Doctors of Engineering Sciences, Professors N. A. Boborykin, M. V. Varlamov, L. S. Andreev, A. D. Yablochkov, PhDs of Engineering Sciences, Associate Professors V. F. Aleksandrova, G. A. Afanasyeva, S. A. Bolotin, M. M. Kalyuzhnyuk, L. M. Kolchedancev, V. M. Larionova, L. L. Pronchenko, PhD of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor Z. P. Rustam-Zade, software engineers E. Yu. Sataeva and A. G. Teterin were invited to the department.

During this period, intensive training of highly qualified personnel was conducted. The department defended 32 candidate's and four doctoral dissertations. One of the doctoral dissertations was defended by LISI graduate of 1971, Associate Professor S. A. Bolotin.

The main areas of educational and methodological work of the department were the organization of construction and automated construction management systems.

The educational process was improved, aiming at transforming the OPUS discipline from a descriptive to a computational one. The development of a theoretical approach led to the formation of the St Petersburg school of flow-based work organization, whose distinctive features included:

• detailed coordination of work in time and space, as well as comparison and selection of solution options at all stages of the development of organizational and technological documentation;
• justified assignment of the composition of works and justified division of the general front of works into specific ones;
• formation and optimization of all competitive methods of work organization applicable to each specific case;
• the use for comparative analysis of work organization options not only of absolute criteria (time, cost, etc.), but also of relative differential criteria, combined into integral ones;
• drawing up executive calendar schedules "on the spot", their analysis and use in the construction of similar facilities.

The department develops coursework and diploma projects on real-world topics. The department's "industrial" reputation has allowed it to collaborate closely on a contractual basis with Gosstroy, ministries, Glavleningradstroy, and Glavzapstroy.

In 1998, after merging with the Occupational Safety Department, the OPUS Department became part of the newly formed Institute of Economics and Management and received its current name, "Construction Management." Professor V. I. Kirichenko became its head. In addition to its traditional courses, the newly redesigned department began offering courses related to real estate management, human resources, quality, office management, the organization of technical maintenance of real estate facilities, and life safety.

In 2000, Professor S. A. Bolotin assumed leadership of the department. During this new phase, the department's focus on training specialists in real estate appraisal and management was strengthened, leading in 2005 to the division of the department into the Department of Construction Management and the Department of Real Estate Appraisal and Management.

From 2006 to 2012, the heads of the department were Doctor of Engineering Sciences, Professor L. M. Kolchedantsev, Doctor of Engineering Sciences, Professor S. A. Bolotin, and then, until the merger in 2014 with the Department of Construction Technology, PhD of Engineering Sciences, Associate Professor V. M. Chelnokova.

In 2017, a decision was made to split the Department of Construction Operations into the Department of Construction Management and the Department of Construction Technology.

Despite the difficulties of the perestroika period, the department retained its scientific and pedagogical potential. The field of flow-based work organization continues to be developed by Professors S. A. Bolotin and L. M. Kolchedantsev, as well as by the efforts of their numerous students, in improving methods of organization, scheduling, and construction management. During this time, a large number of scientific and educational works have been published, including collective monographs, textbooks, and teaching aids.

The direction of improving the quality management system in construction is being developed based on optimization methods for calculating construction schedules, assessing the quality of construction organization projects and technical and economic assessment of construction work.

Research was conducted on the development of organizational management frameworks and multi-level scheduling for the construction of facilities and complexes. Associate Professor M. M. Kalyuzhnyuk achieved significant results in improving the systems and structures for managing the production and management activities of design and construction organizations.

In 2007–2015, under the supervision of Doctor of Engineering Sciences, Professor L. M. Kolchedantsev, the faculty with the participation of master's and PhD students of the department, at the request of construction organizations, developed projects for the production of work on technologically complex objects, such as the elevator tower, the K-125 ski jump and the K-95 ski jump of the multifunctional sports complex in Sochi (PPM for the installation of load-bearing steel structures, developers - Associate Professor A. D. Drozdov and Senior Lecturer I. G. Osipenkova); a complex of retaining structures of the upper tier for multi-story residential buildings with underground parking in Sochi (PPM developer - Associate Professor A. D. Drozdov); Novovoronezh NPP-2 with power units No. 1 and No. 2, chimney-type evaporative cooling tower (workshop for installation of internal support structures, developers – Associate Professor A. D. Drozdov and Senior Lecturer I. G. Osipenkova); administrative and public-business complex with underground parking "Nevskaya Ratusha" in St Petersburg (workshop for installation of load-bearing metal structures of the elevator tower with an observation deck and a dome with a diameter of 51 m, developers – Associate Professors V. V. Sokolnikov and A. D. Drozdov); construction work agreement for the multifunctional complex "Lakhta Center" and construction work agreement for the football stadium "Gazprom Arena" in St Petersburg (developer – Associate Professor I. M. Chakhkiev); Work plan for the installation of three 1400 mm diameter steel casing-covered crossings for a 1200 mm diameter water pipeline under railway tracks using the HDD method in St Petersburg (developer – Associate Professor A. D. Drozdov).

In 2015–2020, the department’s staff completed the work project for the reconstruction of Shop 15 at OMZ-Spetsstal LLC (developed by Associate Professor Ch. O. Bakhtinova), the work project for the construction of monolithic reinforced concrete chambers for the second stage of the Leningrad NPP (developed by Senior Lecturer I. G. Osipenkov, Associate Professors A. D. Drozdov and V. V. Sokolnikov), the construction project for the Northern Latitudinal Railway (developed by Associate Professor I. M. Chakhkiev), and other projects.

The department's staff (Associate Professor V. M. Chelnokova) actively participates in forensic technical examinations, including those commissioned by the Investigative Committee of St Petersburg. They have conducted examinations of properties in St Petersburg and other cities in northwestern Russia, including forensic examinations during the third stage of the Moskva Hotel reconstruction, the reconstruction of attic floors, and other projects. A number of conclusions have been issued for the development of construction plans and project planning regulations for properties in various regions of the country.

Under the supervision of department Professor A. A. Rudenko, the research project "Technical, Economic, and Organizational Aspects of Restoring Military Infrastructure Facilities" (authors A. A. Rudenko, A. N. Biryukov, Yu. A. Biryukov) was conducted. This research project was recognized as the best scientific work of the Russian Ministry of Defense in 2023 and awarded the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation's badge of honor "For the best scientific work in 2023." (Order of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation No. 640 dated 22 September, 2023.)

In addition, under the supervision of the Professor, the research work (grant) of SPbGASU 2025 "Organization of restoration and repair of buildings after explosive impact, based on an integrated approach, using laser scanning, neural network and 3D modeling" and the research work (grant) of SPbGASU 2026 "Development and modeling of parameters of construction processes during the modernization of hazardous industrial facilities taking into account technical and environmental risks" were carried out.

During the implementation of the specified research and development work, a methodology and toolkit for the restoration of facilities after explosive impacts at an acceptable level of man-made contamination were developed, including:

• an aggregated object-node method of restoration repair of objects based on standard organizational and design solutions, principles of work packaging, nodal construction and lean manufacturing;

• a modular-descriptive method for restorative repair of objects in cases of man-made pollution of the area based on the toolkit of Bayesian networks and the PyCharm cross-platform neural network environment.

The department's students regularly become winners and prize-winners of student Olympiads and final qualifying work competitions held by the Association of Construction Universities, as well as the All-Russian TIM-Championships of SPbGASU.

Currently, the department actively combines scientific and practical developments in the fields of scheduling (Associate Professor V. S. Bovteev), 4D modeling, and the application of digital technologies and artificial intelligence in construction management with the educational process. It regularly conducts excursions to design and construction organizations and to the construction sites of leading developers in St Petersburg and the Leningrad Region.

From 2017 to 2020, the department was headed by PhD of Engineering Sciences, Associate Professor Aleksandr Danilovich Drozdov, "Best Civil Engineer" (Novy Urengoy, 2017), a participant in the development of more than 40 work production projects, construction organization projects, and holder of nine copyright certificates and patents for methods and devices.

From 2020 to the present, the head of the department is PhD of Engineering Sciences, Associate Professor Roman Vladimirovich Motylev.